The Adventures of Richard
by supremeDMK
Summary: Follow Richard on his journey towards greatness. Updated with warband geography.


Chapter 1: To Chaeza

I don't own Mount & Blade, it's a wonderful game that was made by Taleworlds.

The Adventures of Richard

Chapter 1

Richard had problems, big problems. He knew he had to leave Praven, but he didn't knew where to go after that. And since he didn't want to decide that in the wilderness, he was now enjoying a nice pint of ale and some paranoia in the local tavern. He nervously stroke back his long black hair, his brown eyes watched the door every time someone came in. If the guards found him here he would be executed so he had to hurry, apparently it could be seen that he was nervous since the bartender gave him a weird look and asked, 'Are you alright sir?' He looked up and said 'Unless you know a nice and quiet village or town for me to go to, that's none of your business.' The bartender grinned 'Now that you mention it, I have a cousin who lives in Chaeza, if you want I can give you directions to it, but you need to do something for me.' Richard always dreaded those words but this time he had no choice. 'Okay, what do you want me to do?' 'I need you to deliver a letter to my cousin there, we haven't spoken for a long time now and there is nobody who wants to deliver it with all the bandits on the road.' 'Great' Richard thought 'There is death before and after me', he sighed, 'Very well I will deliver the letter, now where is this place?' 'It's quite simple, follow the road to Veluca, after reaching Veluca it's only a short distance to the southwest, there is also a *training ground to the south east of there if you happen to need some training.' 'Okay thanks, I think I need to leave now, my time is running short.' Richard quickly put on his cloak and concealed his face under the hood.

This might be a nice time to recall why he is running, you see Richard is (or was) a bodyguard. Unfortunately he reacted to fast when his employer was attacked and instead of knocking the attacker out, he killed him. And now comes the conclusion, the attacker was the heir of the local ruler and that means big trouble. His employee was quite friendly though, he promised to call the guards after a view hours so he could get out. After all he did safe his life…

Richard was on his horse, he approached the gate, but medieval gates tend to be guarded. 'Hey you there!' shouted the guard. 'Show your face!' Richard panicked, he was close to the gate so he let his horse run over the guard and galloped into the night. He rode for a few hours and decided to set up camp, he fell asleep almost immediately after he laid down.

Richard hated mornings, especially when he wakes up under attack, fortunately it was just a small band of four looters, ill prepared and ill equipped. Nothing his trusty equipment and skills couldn't handle, being a veteran from the Swadian army has its advantages. The first looter ran towards him and swung his club in the general direction of Richards head, he blocked it with his sword and counterattacked, slicing through the throat of his assailant. Using the time it took for the other looters to reach him he grabbed his shield and assessed the situation, he had a sword and shield but no real armor since he didn't like to sleep with his cuirass on, but he kept his gambeson which would offer some protection to the blows of his enemies. A stone struck the tree next to him, bringing his head back to the fight, in order to protect himself better he raised his shield and pulled back behind the tree. He waited, hearing the shouts of the frustrated looters, they had found their companion and were pissed that they couldn't pepper their opponent with stones. Eventually one of them had mustered enough courage to take a look behind the tree and was rewarded with the separation of his head from his body. Seeing that they had overestimated their skills, the other two started to run away, but Richard had taken the stones that were dropped by his last victim and with a couple of lucky throws he had two unconscious looters. Since he was alone he couldn't take them prisoner so he decided to take a look at what they had. While it wasn't worth much he still took the weapons and armor from the looters with him, he was close to Suno so he could sell them there. Yet it was quite ironic that he had just looted the looters. When he arrived in Suno he immediately sold his loot and bought a longbow with a quiver of arrows, nothing beats hitting your opponent before they can hit you. By noon he started his journey towards Veluca, hoping that he wouldn't run into a party of mountain bandits since he heard some pretty scary stories about these outlaws.

'Strange' Richard thought, 'There is no road connecting Uxkhal and Veluca.' Of course the Swadians and the Vaegirs are never at peace for long but still, there are still merchant caravans who would be able to travel faster with roads. He was about to reach Veluca when he was stopped by mountain bandits, there was no way he could get away for they had already spotted him and where on their way. 'No way I'm going to succeed in defeating twenty of these guys on my own' he thought. But they didn't kill him on the spot, a big, mounted man rode towards him and shouted 'These forests aren't safe these days, but fortunately you can pay us five hundred denars for a safe passage!' 'I don't have five hundred denars!' Richard shouted back. The bandits started to laugh and their leader drew his sword and shouted 'Then we will have your head and everything else you have!'. Fortunately for Richard this little conversation had delayed the bandits long enough for a band of manhunters to rush to his aid. Suddenly the odds had improved considerably and together with the manhunters he charged the surprised outlaws.

Since the bandit leader had insulted him Richard decided to get to him first so that the manhunters couldn't knock him out and claim him. The leader was surprised but in a reflex he prepared to lob of Richards head, in response to that Richard quickly lowered himself until he was almost laying on his horse and chopped of a leg of the bandit's horse. Richard quickly turned his horse around and charged again however, another bandit grabbed him and pulled him from his horse. Richard dispatched the bandit and saw that the leader had recovered from his fall and was moving towards him, his eyes burning with rage. His men were dying around him but apparently he didn't care, all he wanted was to fight Richard and Richard wanted to fight him. They ran towards each other, swearing and insulting each other. Then they traded blows, they were both experienced warriors so the fight lasted for some time, the manhunters understood that this was quite personal so they didn't intervene, even after all the other bandits were defeated. Eventually the bandit leader was exhausted and made a mistake, resulting in the end of his life.

After the battle the leader of the manhunters thanked Richard for delaying the mountain bandits long enough for them to catch up with them. They had captured some of the bandits and invited him to travel with them to Veluca. After they reached Veluca their ways parted, Richard was going to the tavern to rest and the manhunters went to the ransom broker to sell their prisoners. However before they left they gave him a small share in the money they made and wished him luck.

When Richard left Veluca next morning he was still a bit sore from the battle however Chaeza wasn't far away so he would just suck it up, suddenly he remembered what the bartender had said about the training camp and decided to visit it before going to Chaeza. He found the training camp quite quikly and decided to brush up his close combat skills but he quickly changed his plans when he saw an archery range, his archery skills were quite nonexistent so he paid a small fee for a few lessons. By afternoon he noticed that it would take a long time until he could make a headshot without being extremely lucky and continued his journey to Chaeza.

*I know there isn't a training ground but for the storyline it's necessary to take that liberty ;)

This is my first fanfic, for more info on the game visit the website , please review.


End file.
